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Governor deploys new teams to fight crime in major California cities
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the next phase of his crime-fighting efforts, which involve deploying new California Highway Patrol crime suppression teams.
The teams will work directly with local law enforcement in major cities and regions across the state — San Diego, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Central Valley, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Newsom’s office said the deployment comes as crime is dropping statewide.
“When the state and local communities work together strategically, public safety improves. While the Trump Administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them — and delivering real results. With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down,” Newsom said.
Thursday’s announcement builds on successful CHP efforts already underway in Oakland, Bakersfield, and San Bernardino.
CHP officers assigned to Crime Suppression Teams will saturate high-crime areas, target repeat offenders, and seize illicit weapons and narcotics.
Enforcement will take place in the San Diego, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area regions.
“These crime suppression teams will provide critical support to our local partners by focusing on crime where it happens most,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “By combining resources, intelligence, and personnel, we can better disrupt criminal activity and strengthen the safety and security of communities across California.”
The Crime Suppression Teams will:
• Identify and suppress criminal activity in high-crime areas through data and intelligence-led policing.
• Conduct proactive enforcement operations designed to deter and disrupt organized crime.
• Provide increased CHP visibility and presence in communities most impacted by crime.
• Support local law enforcement by sharing intelligence, coordinating enforcement, and assisting with investigations.
• Maintain strict accountability through structured leadership, clear reporting, and operational oversight.
• Combined with significant financial investment from the state, these partnerships have brought positive change to Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Oakland.
Positive results in Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Oakland
In 2024, Gov. Newsom deployed officers for regional partnerships in Bakersfield, San Bernardino, and Oakland. So far, officials have made over 9,000 arrests, recovered nearly 5,800 stolen vehicles, and confiscated over 400 firearms.
Bakersfield: Since April 2024, a CHP partnership in Bakersfield has led to 859 felony arrests, 721 misdemeanor arrests, 2,654 DUI arrests, 1,386 stolen vehicles recovered, and 114 firearms seized. Bakersfield's 2024 crime rates were the lowest since 2021, with a 57% drop in homicides and 60% fewer shootings.
Oakland: By late 2024, Oakland significantly reduced crime, with an overall 34% decrease year-over-year. Preliminary 2024 data showed a 25% drop in robbery, nearly 50% in burglary, and 33% in vehicle theft. Since joint efforts began in February 2024, officials have made 73 felony arrests, 420 misdemeanor arrests, 1,528 DUI arrests, recovered 4,257 stolen vehicles, and seized 247 illicit firearms.
San Bernardino: Since October 2024, a collaborative law enforcement effort in the area has significantly reduced property theft and violent crime, including gun violence. Officials have made 357 felony arrests, 1,617 misdemeanor arrests, 170 DUI arrests, seized 145 stolen vehicles, and removed 82 illicit firearms.
Reducing crime in California
Due to what Newsom’s office called “thoughtful investments” in public safety since 2019, nearly every major crime category, including violent crime and homicides, dropped in 2024, according to data released by the California Department of Justice.
Adding to positive preliminary results of lower crime in key areas statewide, data compiled by the eight most populous California cities for the first six months of 2025 show overall violent crime is down 12.5% compared to 2024. Other non-California cities experienced an 11.8% decline in violent crime.
According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, there’s been a 20% drop in homicides and 19% decrease in robberies in California so far in 2025.
The largest overall declines in violent crime were reported by the police departments in Oakland (30%) and San Francisco (22%). While Los Angeles County is represented by three law enforcement agencies in this dataset, taken together, the overall violent crime declined by 11% in the region.
Overall, California has generally seen homicide, robbery, and property crime rates at or below pre-pandemic levels.
Comparing California to other states
California’s 2024 homicide rate was the second lowest it has been since at least 1966. The overall number of homicides in California decreased by nearly 12% since 2023.
When compared to other states, California’s homicide rates (5.1) have historically been lower. According to CDC data from 2023, the latest year available for all states, Louisiana (19.3) and Mississippi (19.4) homicide rates are nearly four times higher than California; Alabama (14.8), Missouri (10.4); and Tennessee (11.4), Arkansas (11.3), South Carolina (11.3) are all more than double California’s rate.
Significant public safety investments
While Republicans in Congress pushed their “big beautiful betrayal” bill that cut law enforcement funding, California has shown what real public safety looks like: serious investments, strong enforcement, and real results.
California has invested $1.7 billion since 2019 to fight crime, help local governments hire more police, and improve public safety. In 2023, as part of California’s Public Safety Plan, the governor announced the largest-ever investment to combat organized retail crime in state history, an annual 310% increase in proactive operations targeting organized retail crime, and special operations across the state to fight crime and improve public safety.
Last August, Gov. Newsom signed into law the most significant bipartisan legislation to crack down on property crime in modern California history.
These bipartisan bills offer new tools to bolster ongoing efforts to hold criminals accountable for smash-and-grab robberies, property crime, retail theft, and auto burglaries.
While California’s crime rate remains at what Newsom’s office said are near-historic lows, these laws help California adapt to evolving criminal tactics to ensure perpetrators are effectively held accountable.
As part of the state’s largest-ever investment to combat organized retail crime, Gov. Newsom announced last year that the state distributed $267 million to 55 communities to help local communities combat organized retail crime.
These funds have enabled cities and counties to hire more police, make more arrests, and secure more felony charges against suspects.
Supervisors unanimously back Guenoc Valley project
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the new environmental report and all permit requests for the Guenoc Valley project, paving the way for the large-scale luxury resort and residential development in south Lake County.
While supervisors raised clarifying questions about water supply and road maintenance related to the project, both the board and speakers during public comment voiced overwhelming support, citing the project’s potential for economic growth, job opportunities, and design features to address wildfire risk, evacuation, education and other concerns.
On July 24 and Aug. 8, the Lake County Planning Commission discussed the project over the course of two meetings. In the July meeting, officials, local community leaders and residents were mostly critical, raising concerns over wildfire risks and high-density workforce housing.
Before the commission’s second meeting, some commissioners and community representatives toured the site during visits organized by the developer, as they disclosed.
Later, the August meeting showed shifted community attitudes and mostly support. Ultimately, the commission recommended to the Board of Supervisors that it approve most requests by the project applicant.
After three hours of presentations, public comment and board deliberations, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the project’s updated environmental impact report, or EIR, along with all permits and amendment requests.
Those approvals included zoning changes to create a new district for mixed-use development, and rezoning part of the Santa Clara site from single-family to two-family residential — a higher density change that the Planning Commission deadlocked on in its August 8 meeting, resulting in an automatic denial and appeal to the board.
The Guenoc Valley Mixed Use Planned Development Project is a luxury destination that at full buildout will include up to 400 hotel rooms, 450 resort residential units, 1,400 residential estates and 500 workforce co-housing units on a portion of the 16,000-acre, 82-parcel Guenoc property.
The project applicant is San Francisco-based Lotusland Investment Holdings. Its owner, Chinese developer Yiming Xu, immigrated from China to Canada in 1996. Since the early 2000s, he has been involved in various real estate and luxury resort developments in China. Xu has owned the property since 2016.
According to the project’s official website, the Guenoc Valley project development is led by Lotusland’s developing partners, Jonathan Breene and Adrian Zecha of Mahaman, as well as Yiming Xu’s son, Alex Xu.
Lake County News submitted a letter with questions to the board as public comment for the meeting right before the meeting. The questions included asking if anyone in the county had any information about the project’s financing, Lotusland’s owner, the company’s financial capacity — or at least how much the project will cost.
They were not brought up during the board meeting, and by the time of publication of this story, none of the supervisors had responded.
Fire, water, roads — and the unanswered
This wasn’t Lotusland’s first try.
The Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors approved their environmental reports and permits in 2020. Lawsuits by environmental groups and intervention by the California Attorney General paused progress, citing inadequate community evacuation analysis. Now the project returned with a new EIR.
Annalee Sanborn of Acorn Environmental explained the fire mitigation measures in the updated EIR: an additional Grange Road connector for emergency access and evacuation route for evacuation, a new fire station and several temporary refuge points.
Joshua Dimon, UC Berkeley Disaster Lab Lead scientist, later told the board that the fire mitigation features will reduce fire intensity across the site by about 50%. Dimon’s team conducted the wildfire risk assessment for the updated EIR.
Sanborn explained the project’s "significant and unavoidable” environmental impact on aesthetics, agricultural and forestry resources, greenhouse gas emissions, noise and transportation.
And she also noted that the EIR measured “extremely conservative impacts” to farmland or biological habitats. “But the actual impacts will be lower once houses are designed,” Sanborn added.
In fact, the developer and the two environmental groups reached a habitat conservation agreement on Aug. 7 to protect 3,717 acres within the Guenoc property, alongside implementation of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with $2 million for additional off-site conservation.
Rod Hodil, attorney for the project applicant, said that the developer had entered into a “non-binding” agreement with Middletown’s Callayomi County Water District for a potential purchase of one off-site well.
“That is my line in the dirt, Middletown water,” said District 1 Supervisor Helen Owen, of whose district the project is located, asking adding it as a condition for approval, instead a non-binding term.
“I think this is a phenomenal project. I think it's an amazing opportunity. My only concern left is the nonbinding,” Owen said. “It's my responsibility to protect the people of Middletown, and I know that there's people in Middletown right now that are needing water.”
Deputy County Counsel Nicole Johnson said that the condition of drilling up to one well was already added to the use permit.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier also asked if there is any fee to support maintenance of county roads, such as Butts Canyon Road, which will see heavy traffic from the Guenoc Valley project. He pointed to the agreement with Brassfield Winery, where a per-case fee helps maintain High Valley Road, and suggested a comparable per-stay fee on hotel or resort guests.
“I would personally rather not walk away today with a developer agreement that says nothing about the future of [Butts Canyon] Road, even though there’s potential for thousands of people to travel every single day to get to work, let alone the people that will be staying there,” he said.
Johnson said now it was “a big picture” and fees related to roads are more granular for future analysis.
“I think we can wait for the specific development plans; I don’t think we need to do that today,” said Supervisor Jessica Pyska.
“I just wanted to make the statement, because we're kind of giving a little bit of a blessing today to move forward. But to me, there's something that I feel could be missing,” Sabatier said.
The biggest appeal: Promises on job prospects
During the developers’ presentation, Breene told the board that the project could generate $3.8 billion in economic benefits for Lake County over 25 years, including $2.47 billion in labor income, $635 million in local taxes and $212 million in state taxes. It would also create an estimated 2,688 jobs annually.
The outlook of job creation and economic impact appealed to the audience in the board chambers, including supervisors and the public.
During public comment, Max Hopkins said the project is a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.
“What this project presents is truly a monumental future with education, employment opportunities in an environmentally sensitive and just astounding process,” he said.
“I can tell you that we need this, we need this injection into our county,” said Amanda Martin, Chief Executive chief executive officer of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, citing the needs of the local hospitality industry that has struggled in recent years. “The indirect economic infusion into our county will be huge.”
During the board discussion, Pyska said Napa County supervisors “are always asking” for more Lake County employees to work in their resorts because “nobody can afford to live in Napa; They live in our county.”
“So I said you can have them for a little while,” Pyska said, drawing laughter from the audience in the chamber. “But they're going to be working here, and we're going to be keeping them here.”
The promises made during the meeting were significant and appealing.
During public comment, Margaux Kambara voiced her support for the project as a great opportunity. Also she brought up the concern: “A lot of communities were promised big things, and the developer didn't deliver, or the big corporation came to town, started building and then left and did not hire the dozens, the scores of local people that were promised.”
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
Lake County Library System launches modern online catalog
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Library is excited to announce the launch of its new online catalog, offering a modern and intuitive experience for library patrons across the county.
The new website provides enhanced search functionality, personalized recommendations, and community-driven features designed to make it easier than ever to explore the library's vast collection.
"Our new library catalog is more than just a list of books; it's the primary way to explore everything we have to offer," said County Librarian Christopher Veach. "I'm so excited to provide a modern, easy-to-use experience that helps Lake County residents find the exact titles they want in the format they prefer and also discover new things along the way."
The new catalog introduces a host of features to improve the user experience:
Smarter searching: Intuitive filters allow patrons to quickly narrow search results to find exactly what they need, in the format they want, including options to filter by reading level for students and parents.
Better browsing: The new platform makes it easier to explore new titles, award-winners, and bestsellers. It also provides related titles and read-alike recommendations to help patrons discover their next favorite book, movie, or magazine.
Join the community: Patrons can now register their library card to create their own lists, rate and review titles, and add custom tags. Users aged 13 and older can choose a personalized username, while those younger than 13 will select a color and animal.
Mobile friendly: The catalog offers a seamless experience across all devices, including phones, laptops, and tablets.
Through the online catalog, users can manage their holds and checked-out titles and request physical item from the Lake, Sonoma, and Mendocino County Library systems to be sent to their local branch for pickup. The catalog also provides access to the library's digital collection of eBooks, eAudiobooks, streaming videos, online magazines, and downloadable graphic novels.
For those who prefer the original layout, the classic library catalog will remain available.
Explore the new catalog today at https://lakecountyca.bibliocommons.com.
Visit the Lake County Library Website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov.
CHP cracks down on impaired drivers this Labor Day Weekend
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol said it will flood roadways with all available officers this Labor Day weekend in an aggressive effort to stop impaired drivers before they cause harm.
The CHP’s annual Labor Day Holiday Enforcement Period, or HEP, begins Friday, Aug. 29, at 6:01 p.m. and runs through Monday, Sept. 1, at 11:59 p.m.
The effort coincides with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” campaign, which continues through Sept. 1.
“Every available CHP officer will be on the road this Labor Day weekend with one mission: to stop impaired drivers before they harm themselves or others. If you choose to drive under the influence, expect to be stopped, arrested and held accountable. No excuses, no warnings. Lives are on the line,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee.
The dangers of impaired driving are clear. Over the past five years, Labor Day weekend has averaged:
• 1,000 DUI arrests statewide;
• 28 fatal crashes resulting in more than 30 deaths within CHP jurisdiction.
During last year’s holiday enforcement period, 61 lives were lost. Of those, 21 were linked to impaired driving.
Additionally, CHP officers made 1,140 DUI arrests during the holiday weekend.
The CHP urges the public to remain vigilant and report any suspected impaired drivers. Remember, if you see something, say something — call 9-1-1. Your call could save someone's life.
